Hopped Up on Lattes and Sunshine

Patio weather is upon us! Okay, so maybe not "upon us", but it's as close as it can get.

It is fabulously sunny and warm out today. I spent the afternoon walking around my beloved, beloved Queen St. W. Not only did I buy the most adorable spring jacket of all time (SO.cute), I saw people on patios! Yes, it is four degrees celcius outside. But with the sun it feels warmer! Right? Meh, it's Canada. We're on patios the minute winter shows the slightest sign of subsiding. (Last year, Jen and I hit the Hemingway's patio by end of March. I'm thinking we may get away with the very same this year.)

In any case, while walking about town today, I was reminiscing. I've been living here for almost three years now, and I think today it finally just worked. I was all dreamy, loving the city, remembering how exciting it was when I first moved here.

The first month I lived in Toronto, I was staying with my much-adored cousins while I hunted out a place for Dave and I to live (he was finishing up a contract in Halifax). I used to get up in the morning, get ready for the day, sit on some College St. patio, sipping coffee and reading a local weekly. I was in love with everything about the whole shebang -- the constant flow of people around me, the chatter and giddiness of spring and people and friends and beer and just everything. I couldn't believe my luck, that I was going to finally get to live here and work here and be a part of the city. After my coffee, I would walk around town -- first just down College, and increasingly adventuresome with each new day. I walked everywhere, strangers gave me directions, and I would marvel at the buildings and the CN Tower and the lunches and the people and the flowers at convenience stores and the adorable little shops and neat artwork and, good lord, the whole thing just had me in a state of constant rapture.

Walking today on Queen, doing a little shopping and going to my neighbourhood butcher, all these little random memories came back. And it occurred to me that all that stuff I had romantical fantasies about when I first moved here? That actually came together. That's my life now. It's all very coming-of-age (hah) -- I'm no longer on the outside dreamily looking in. But it sure is nice having the perspective to see home with those eyes.

And, yeah, you'll find me continuing to remember this fantastic fact on a patio by the end of the month.